Kingdom of Monsters by John Schneider (latest novels to read .TXT) 📕

looked around for anything to use as a weapon, but there weren't even pillows for the flat-stone bench.

The beast snarled, reaching with its claws, straining, as it pushed through the gap.

Two more hit the bars, with a heavy, crashing clang, jaws snapping, claws slashing.

Otto's chorus chittered again.  “Little bastards!”

Then the entire front wall of the building crashed in.

Rudy, his hide splattered into bloody meatloaf from turret fire, burst into the main hall, bringing the roof and wall crashing down behind him.

There was a shriek from the Ottos, again broadcasting Naomi's voice, this time in a stereo-chimed, “Aw shit!”

The sound echoed as the little lizards scampered down past the jail-block.

But now the cell-wall crashed in.

Jonah and Naomi dived aside, dodging cinder and rubble, as Jughead stepped into the holding cell with them.

The hapless sickle-claws wedged between the bars shrieked horrible reptilian/avian curses as the big rex tore the entire wall of iron bars from their mooring, collapsing the cell-block.

Trapped beneath the bars, the snarling sickle-claws kicked and struggled, as Jughead dipped his massive jaws, and snapped both of the clawed beasts in half at a stroke.

There was a Hail-Mary screeching as Rudy was swarmed by the dromaeosaur pack.  The big rex bellowed in outrage, as he began to thrash up against the remaining walls.

With sickle-claw feet still protruding from his lips, Jughead paused, looking down at Jonah and Naomi, lying stunned amid the scattered rubble.

The big eyes focused – binocular vision – and its nostrils sniffed.

From down the hallway, where the Ottos had disappeared, came another echoing chorus in Naomi's voice.

“You little bastards!”

Jughead turned, knocking out the neighboring wall in pursuit.

Rudy heard the echoes as well.  He was already in a frenzy, as the swarming sickle-claws targeted his eyes and throat.  Unfortunately for the dromaeosaurs, the cramped space worked to the tyrannosaur's benefit, allowing Rudy to simply crush most of them against heavy breakable objects, any lingering offenders to be snapped up as they tried to retreat.

With the wall to their cell now gone, Jonah and Naomi peered out into the yard, just in time to see one of the turret towers come tumbling down, landing in a resounding crash of mortar and brick.

Big Moose had simply just charged the tower, absorbing the hail of gunfire, and crashed face-first into the base.  At six-tons, he was the largest of the JV squad and took the tower out at a stroke.

But Big Moose took his own damage, and was clearly staggering.  He tried to roar, but his breath came out in bloody coughs.

The second turret opened fire, and angry spurts of blood exploded across the big rex' back and neck, running a race all the way up to the back of the giant skull.

At least one of the shots hit something vulnerable and Big Moose dropped in his tracks, his breath grunting out with the impact as he bonelessly struck the earth, his legs kicking briefly, as if attempting to run.  But then he stiffened and lay still.

Archie took out the remaining tower, charging past running soldiers, stepping on the ones that he could, even as they pumped bullets into his thighs and ribs.  Mimicking the tactics of his bigger brother, the five-ton rex hit the turret square at the base.

This time, the tower itself held, but the gunner was knocked loose, falling nearly forty-feet, right at Archie's feet.

There was a low moan, as the soldier, his back broken, cried out weakly, trying to move.

Archie's jaws dipped, snapping the man up, and tossing him down his gullet like a raw oyster.

Then the big tyrannosaur turned as a fresh hail of gunfire erupted from the dwindling troops.

Jonah wanted to shout at the soldiers to stop.  All they really had to do was simply get the hell out of the way – the T. rex wanted the sickle-claws.

Most especially, they wanted the Ottos, and would do anything to get at those little bastards.

Jonah had said as much to Major Travis.  If he were alive, the Major might have realized to call a stand-down order.

But he was dead. And so his soldiers instead did what they were trained to and kept fighting – and kept antagonizing the rex pack until they smashed the base flat – helpfully providing cover for the sickle-claws as they sprinted between the tyrannosaurs' towering legs, chasing down any remaining human resistance.

It was as costly for all sides as it could possibly be.  It ended with a final burst of gunfire, and the sound of an aborted scream.

The warbling calls of the sickle-claws were quickly silenced as well.  Steadfastly holding their ground, they were easy pickings for the teen tyrannosaurs.

The JV squad, however, had also taken their lumps.  The turret-guns had done their work.  T. rex were known by fossils to have recovered from seemingly ridiculous amounts of damage, but it was always about surviving the initial injury in the first place.

Operating on the adrenaline of their attack, and no doubt juiced-up by whatever antagonistic psycho/chemical reaction Otto's presence seemed to inspire, the rex pack had walked through weapons intended to take down fighter-jets.

To their credit, they seemed to have won their fight.

But once the skirmish was over, the JV squad's injuries caught up with them.

Jughead's hide was flayed open all along the ribcage, and his breath rasped through ragged holes blown clear into its lungs.

Big Moose was already down, and Archie, with the last sickle-claw's legs still dangling from his jaws, just stood panting, like a hard-run dog, with ragged munitions wounds scoured along his hide.

And Rudy, now that the dromaeosaur-pack seemed accounted for, simply sat down to wait.

There were still Ottos around somewhere.

T. rex were stubborn.  They didn't mind dying, but they had to get you first.

For the moment, the little lizards remained hidden.

Naomi stole from the collapsed holding-cell out into the smashed hallway.  Rudy had knocked away a substantial portion of the roof.  What was left looked practically eager to drop on top of them.

Jonah followed as Naomi peeled a bloody rifle off the body of a fallen